Modern vehicle control systems are comprised of a network of systems, subsystems and controllers interacting to control the various components of the vehicle. For example a vehicle control system could comprise subsystems associated with a domain of features of the vehicle such as vehicle dynamics. Each of these subsystems may comprise one or more electronic control units (ECUs) which are associated with a feature of the domain, for example the vehicle dynamics subsystem may comprise an ECU relating to braking. The subsystems also comprise functional units that are related to that domain subsystem. A functional unit could for example be a brake actuation sensor. The functional units are often interconnected which makes detecting and locating faults rapidly a challenge.
With such vehicle control systems comprising numerous subsystems communicating and controlling various aspects of the vehicle, testing and validation of large electronic control systems is of significant importance. Furthermore, the increasing numbers of features in vehicle control systems has in turn increased the proportion of vehicle production costs associated with control systems. A fault detection method and system for vehicle control system being able to detect faults efficiently and effectively during production and development would thus decrease production costs and increase vehicle reliability.